Smart technologies are undoubtedly revolutionising the way cities address the challenges and opportunities of urban growth – and Scotland’s largest population masses stand to benefit hugely.
Such technologies are helping our cities to allocate resources more efficiently and improve how data and information are managed and shared across systems. In other words, disruptive thinking is handing them the tools to utilise existing assets more effectively.
With that in mind, it was hugely encouraging to see a project to improve data and digital technology across Scotland recently receiving a further £15m in European funding, adding to an existing pot of £45m.
The Scottish Cities Alliance’s Smart Cities programme is aiming to make our urban centres more attractive to both potential investors and residents. Of course, it offers a real win-win where a higher quality of life is attained while fresh economic growth is achieved.
The latest funding for Scotland is to be used to improve technology and efficiency in infrastructure such as street lighting, waste and water management, and public transport. The Alliance has good form in this area – it has helped to boost the Scottish economy by some £125msince 2011.
It’s hoped that the new funding can enable local authorities to strengthen their already very collaborative approach and bring even more cutting edge technologies like Open Data and Intelligent Street Lighting, improving both visibility and safety.
Sustainability has also been highlighted as one of the key factors behind the funding allocation with the Alliance aiming to increase low-carbon energy solutions to address growing concerns over climate change.
Such environmental factors are an increasingly important factor for investors when looking at new locations, with smart technology offering the ability to significantly cut emissions, reduce water consumption, and decrease average commute times.
Such sweeping AI developments are serving to significantly increase the use of telecom networks, with the advent of 5G expected to lend them further momentum in the coming years.
Indeed, to name just a few examples, the smart city environment’s heightened connectivity offers the use of mobile apps that provide real-time information on traffic delays, intelligent GIS systems that ensure the shortest route to a destination is achieved, and systems that determine energy pricing according to demand peaks.
At the same time, the greater availability of satellite data is vital to understanding the connectivity between cities, allowing the measurement of economic growth, swift detection of power outages, or identification in real time of where resources could be better allocated.
Smart cities are also speedy indeed – those aforementioned 5G networks are expected to provide data rates of one gigabyte per second simultaneously to many workers on the same office floor, not to mention several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections for wireless sensors.
With its new funding, Scotland is rightly choosing to take its seven cities on the smart journey together by adopting a collaborative approach that shares learning and best practice in order to accelerate and transform services.
Over the next few years, the Scottish Cities Alliance’s focus will be on heightening mobile working and developing smart infrastructure projects that implement an Internet of Things approach to connect devices and thus improve data-driven decision-making.
Effectively, the possibilities are endless – as is the potential for Scotland for steal a vital march in this exciting growth area. Now that’s really smart.
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Tom Sime